Furnace won’t stay on

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Hey guys. My furnace won’t stay running more than a day or two.
If I reset the entire unit (kill power to it) it’ll boot up after being turned back on and go through a cycle of on off. It’ll build pressure and run for a day or two. If there’s no command for the heat to come back on in a day or so it’ll simply turn off and show a red light. If I hit the reset button next to the red light it’ll boot up, you hear the blower run and then nothing. It’ll simply return to the solid red light.
When I reset the unit by powering down, the red light blinks when it shuts off and reboots continuous until the pressure builds and it runs normal, no light.
I cleaned the CAD eye and checked electrical connections. I have fuel so what else can I check? Not an HVAC guy, very little experience. But not afraid to learn and do my own work. It’s just not something that happens so I really haven’t had to muck around with it and learn…

 

[PoorUB]

I little more info might help! Obviously oil, which make and model of gun?

Build pressure? Is this a boiler? Make and model again?

 

[Wrench97]

I'm no furnace expert, but you can probably help your cause by telling us what brand/model/fuel your unit is

 

[dogdog]

When I reset the unit by powering down, the red light blinks when it shuts off and reboots continuous until the pressure builds and it runs normal, no light.
I cleaned the CAD eye and checked electrical connections. I have fuel so what else can I check?

yea make model, sometimes you can look up the blinks to decode what is the cause of the issues, sometimes not.

Not sure what kind of electrical connections you are checking... you needed to check the cad eyes if it is one of those photo resistor and not some fancy new things... for resistance... it should fall within a range. These usually would be in your furnace manuals or just google up.

If your system is having a hard time building pressure (it's actually sucking fuel on the supply line) after a lock out and not every time it starts up, maybe you have a vacuum leak some where or too many bubbles in the fuel, partial pinch or clogged line.. bad pump like the other thread earlier this week ? or your tank vacuum back the fuels because no vent ?

Not sure , not an HVAC expert either just something I have experienced when DIY my own stuff.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

It is oil, yes

Smith cast iron boiler
Carlin ez pro with a 1hp motor
And Beckett clean cut pump

 

[slimpickins]

Still need more info! Hot water or steam boiler? Model number?
Pictures would also be helpful! We can't just guess on these things.

 

[dchawk81]

We can't just guess on these things.

Sure we can. It's pointless, but that doesn't have to stop us.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Still need more info! Hot water or steam boiler? Model number?
Pictures would also be helpful! We can't just guess on these things.

Model number of which component? I’m sorry, I don’t know all the pertinent info to give as I don’t know what specific troubleshooting steps you’d need to relay.

It’s a hot water

 

[slimpickins]

It sounds like you need to call a professional. According to THIS SITE if you hit the reset button too many times it will lock you out. This is what it sounds like in your first post when you hit the reset button and it goes back to a solid red light. Then when you cycle the power, it will light, but then it will return to the trouble code and resetting it several times will lock you out again.

The issue is that you are not solving the problem(s) that are causing it to stop in the first place. It is failing to fire because of some problem and resetting it, or cycling the power is not going to fix the problem.

Oil burners (well, I should say ALL furnaces and boilers) need annual maintenance or eventually you will have problems. They can become unsafe as well. By resetting the furnace and getting it to run without fixing the problem you are potentially exposing yourself to a dangerous situation. The site I refer to above talks about adjusting the (ignition) electrodes and adjusting the flame ... there's probably other things that need maintenance/service as well.

I don't know much about oil burners except that they seem to need more frequent service than gas furnaces. I think you should call a pro unless you can learn how to service it yourself in a hurry.

EDIT: There's a manual available HERE if you want to dive into this yourself. Sounds like a copy of this should be with the furnace anyway. I don't know if this is the correct manual for your burner. You will have to check model numbers to verify it this is for your burner.

Good luck!

 

[PoorUB]

I would caution you on oil to just call a HVAC tech to come out and tune it up.

Oil should be serviced at least every two years. New nozzle, new oil filter and perhaps clean the combustion chamber. If not properly tuned up the efficiancy goes to **** and it can soot up the heat exchanger and you have a big mess.

Keep in mind a proper tune up might take 3-4 hours, or more depending on how bad the unit is.
Years ago I looked at boiler that was so bad off I recommended replacing it. The homeowner asked me how much to tune it properly and told him $1,000-$1,500. He told me to fix it. I spent over a day working on it and replaced quite a bit of parts. If I remember the bill came in about $1,300. Six months later he called me and told me his oil usage dropped in half.

 

[fitter30]

Without reading failure code (s) it would almost be impossible to diagnose on a failure once or twice a day. Oil burners take a experience service person and a flue analyzer for proper set up.

 

[gmcgeo]

Time to hire someone.

 

[MongoTA]

Good ideas already mentioned. It could be oil starvation; a clogged filter at the tank or a clogged filter at the pump on the burner itself. Both of those are pretty easy DIY.

Sometimes it's a weak transformer. This is also fairly easy to check, but you'd need to run the power with the box open. Might not be something you are comfortable with.

Nozzles could be clogged, electrodes corroded or they might have a bad gap. Again, you'd want a certain DIY comfort level to play with those.

Most burners can be reset 3 times before they lock out. If it's not a fuel issue and it's more of a spark issue, every time you fire it and don't get a light off, you're spraying fuel into the chamber. When it does finally light off it might be a smoke show for a bit due to the combustion chamber being heavy on fuel.

Just this morning I had to reset my system. We're on auto-delivery, they missed the last delivery and our tank went dry yesterday. They came for a delivery today.

With the tank going to empty I figured the lines might have gotten mucked up with bottom-of-the-tank sludge, so I changed the filter at the oil tank and while likely not necessary, I also blew out the copper line from the tank to the burner with air. I cleaned the filter on the fuel pump on the burner, and took all the sheet metal off and hard brushed and vacuumed the heat exchanger as well. So a full freshen up, at least as fresh as I can make it.

I put a wide flat container under the burner to catch the fuel oil, and opened the bleed ****** on the burner's fuel pump. Turned on the power to the burner and after it started running I jumped the leads on the power module so it wouldn't time out while I bled the air out of the fuel line. Fuel with a lot of entrained air came out of the bleed ****** and was captured by the container. Once I got bubble-free fuel coming out of the ****** I closed the bleed and the burner fired off. Good clean flame. I removed the jumper.

Hooray for me.

Called the fuel company. "No, there is no problem with your account. No, you haven't missed a delivery. " I asked when they showed our last delivery due, she said "August." I said out last delivery was in April, and she agreed that our last delivery was indeed in April. So if we were due for a delivery in August and it never came, does that mean we missed a delivery? "No, because you had one scheduled in August." Okay, I understand we had one scheduled in August. But if we never got oil delivered in August, does that mean the driver missed the stop? "No, they never miss stops."

Oh well. At least I have hot water again.
I hope you get yours resolved as easily.
EDIT TO ADD: I have a Beckett burner and a Burnham boiler. Both original equipment from when I built this place in '95.